“I’m not sure thereareright places,” she countered.
His eyes narrowed. “Maybe she was so unsuccessful because she confused lust with love. Lots of folks do that, you know.”
She handed him the framed photograph she kept on the end table. It was a candid of her mother. Blonde head thrown back. Big, Julia Roberts mouth spread wide around a laugh. Josephine’s sundress showed off a figure that would make starlets weep with envy.
“She’s stunnin’,” he said after studying the picture for only a moment. “You take after her.”
“Please.” Chrissy rolled her eyes. “I’m passably pretty. She wasmagnificent. And since she looked like that”—she hitched her chin toward the photo at the same time she replaced it on the end table—“she could catch a dick anytime she wanted.”
He snorted. “I wouldn’t have put it exactly that way, but—”
“My point is, I don’t think she confused lust with love. I think she confusedfallingin love withbeingin love.”
For a while he was quiet. Then he asked, “What’s the difference?”
“Falling in love is involuntary. That’s why they call itfalling. It happens to you. You don’t have any control over it.Beingin love, on the other hand, is a choice. It’s a state that happens with conscious effort, with agency.”
“And you think bein’ in love can happen without the fallin’ in love part?”
“Of course!” She tossed up both hands, forgetting one was in a sling. “Ow! Oh, god.” She put a hand over her bandaged shoulder. “Why did I do that?”
Her injury wasn’t unbearable, like she’d assumed a gunshotwouldbe. Then again, it was only a flesh wound, not a bullet to a vital organ. Still, it throbbed like a bitch anytime she moved too quickly.
Wolf sat forward, skewering her with a hard look. “How many pain pills did you take back at the hospital?”
“Just one,” she admitted.
“The nurse said you can take two at a time.” Fishing out the pill bottle from the bottom of the plastic bag, he handed it to her. “I’ll get you a glass of water.”
“I can do it.”
“Woman!” His tone was exasperated. “For the love of all that’s holy. Lettin’ someone take care of you for ten seconds doesn’t mean you’ll lose your Badass Independent Lady card.”
Despite herself, she smirked. “It’s aKick-ass Independent Lady card, if you must know. And like an American Express, I never leave home without it.”
“Sit.” He told her. “Stay.” He stood.
“Woof! Woof!” she barked while trying to muster indignation, but the annoyance on his face was too funny. Wolf was used to people askinghow highwhen he told them to jump.
She found she quitelikedbeing the exception to that rule.
“I’m not treatin’ you like a dog.” His tone was unusually neutral. “I’m simply askin’ in the simplest possible way for you to relax and let me help you.”
“Oh!” She fluttered her lashes at him. “I’m sorry. Were youaskingme to sit here while you got me a glass of water? Somehow I missed the question marks on the ends of all your sentences.”
He put his hands on his hips and let his head fall back so he could stare at the ceiling. It made his Adam’s apple poke out in the column of his tanned throat. For some reason, she found that incredibly sexy.
Her mouth, proving itself as untrustworthy as her nipples, womb, and ovaries, began to water.What would it feel like to take a nip out of that apple? Just catch it between my teeth and then sooth the sting with my tongue?
No, no.No!
They were friends.Friends.Nothing more, nothing less.
Dragging her eyes away from his too-tempting neck, she concentrated on his face, which was still pointed toward the ceiling.
If she wasn’t mistaken, he was silently counting to ten. She thought she could see his lips move. When he finally dropped his chin, his expression was purposefully blank. “Christina.”
“Yes, Wolf?” She fluttered her lashes.
